My Vashon Island life, chronicled on and off since 2006. Family, friends, travel, open water swimming, chickens, honeybees, foraging, growing stuff, practicing PR. A very good life in a beautiful Pacific NW setting.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Friends don't let friends....

...post videos of others in the throes getting high, or even appearing to get high. It's been both disappointing and affirming all at once to spot these posts.

VARSA just circulated its annual community attitudes survey. I would LOVE to see the full findings, line by line for this year. There are so many great kids on this island, yet so many are just lost. These kids become adults, party hosts to the next round of young adults. Many of these in-limbo young adults dwell at home or couch-surf at the families of their friends. The tolerance level of parents on this island, according to past surveys, is pretty high. I'd add another large chunk are parents in complete and total denial that their kids drink, get high, or experiment with other drugs.

Obviously medical marijuana has been in WA for some time, and now recreationally legal for 21+, but now access seems easier for youth as pot shops abound.

As a teenager I experimented the smallest bit - and was that kid who got terrific grades. I tried weed once in high school, LSD over one boring summer in Boise at age 17, and speed in early college days - and I hated the way it made me feel, so there were NEVER drug habits. Mom's dad, my grandpa, was a doctor and pill samples were always around. When I awakened one night (I was 19) to my then-boyfriend sexually assaulting me, he excused his behavior to being wired and horny, so he just decided to help himself. Disgusting. Wrong. Meth. I come from a long line of drug and alcohol dependent family members and watched carefully as my sons came into adolescence for the signs I'd seen in people close to me.

There is so much I could say on this topic. Tests are cheap, people, buy them for your kids--and keep the door cracked open when you give them, making sure your kids are empty-handed on the way into the loo. There are hacks for everything, and unfortunately the only other way is in a doc's office and those are much pricier.

In some ways I'm glad kids are shamelessly putting their party footage out on the net, because it lifts the veil on widespread parental denial that their kids are doing "so great" while others called it.

About Me

North End Vashon Islander and mom to two awesome young men. Blissfully married to David, the multi-talented avenger. Making my own living, not spending other people's money. Living on Vashon Island, pop 10,000, land of lawyers, naturalists, artists, foodies, and so many backstories. Wanna read some?